Lois Lane

BFF: Superman Played by: Margot Kidder, above; Kate Bosworth Relationship: The yin and yang of superhero lore. There's a professional distance, at first; both meet as reporters at the Daily Planet. Eventually lovers, but initially Lois is more infatuated with Superman than with Clark Kent. Hurdles to romance: Lois' obsession with Superman, not Clark; in "Superman II," he gives up his powers to live with her as a mortal, then realizes without him as an immortal, the world dies; in the 2006 film, with Superman away for years, Lois has taken a fiance, given birth and written an editorial/awkward love letter: "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Integral to plotline? Superman is arguably the only superhero whose love life is as important as his enemy. Without Lois, Superman could be an invincible cipher — as Lex Luthor might say, a soulless Boy Scout. With her, especially as played by the scrappy Margot Kidder, she is the potential blood he doesn't shed, his vulnerability. There's a joy between Kidder and Christopher Reeve in "Superman II" rarely seen in this genre, and that's after he forsakes his powers for a normal life with her. In the Bryan Singer film, Bosworth has a son who turns out to be Superman's spawn, though she (and the kid) feel like a distraction from Superman's existential issues.

BFF: Superman Played by: Margot Kidder, above; Kate Bosworth Relationship: The yin and yang of superhero lore. There's a professional distance, at first; both meet as reporters at the Daily Planet. Eventually lovers, but initially Lois is more infatuated with Superman than with Clark Kent. Hurdles to romance: Lois' obsession with Superman, not Clark; in "Superman II," he gives up his powers to live with her as a mortal, then realizes without him as an immortal, the world dies; in the 2006 film, with Superman away for years, Lois has taken a fiance, given birth and written an editorial/awkward love letter: "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Integral to plotline? Superman is arguably the only superhero whose love life is as important as his enemy. Without Lois, Superman could be an invincible cipher — as Lex Luthor might say, a soulless Boy Scout. With her, especially as played by the scrappy Margot Kidder, she is the potential blood he doesn't shed, his vulnerability. There's a joy between Kidder and Christopher Reeve in "Superman II" rarely seen in this genre, and that's after he forsakes his powers for a normal life with her. In the Bryan Singer film, Bosworth has a son who turns out to be Superman's spawn, though she (and the kid) feel like a distraction from Superman's existential issues.

BFF: Superman Played by: Margot Kidder, above; Kate Bosworth Relationship: The yin and yang of superhero lore. There's a professional distance, at first; both meet as reporters at the Daily Planet. Eventually lovers, but initially Lois is more infatuated with Superman than with Clark Kent. Hurdles to romance: Lois' obsession with Superman, not Clark; in "Superman II," he gives up his powers to live with her as a mortal, then realizes without him as an immortal, the world dies; in the 2006 film, with Superman away for years, Lois has taken a fiance, given birth and written an editorial/awkward love letter: "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Integral to plotline? Superman is arguably the only superhero whose love life is as important as his enemy. Without Lois, Superman could be an invincible cipher — as Lex Luthor might say, a soulless Boy Scout. With her, especially as played by the scrappy Margot Kidder, she is the potential blood he doesn't shed, his vulnerability. There's a joy between Kidder and Christopher Reeve in "Superman II" rarely seen in this genre, and that's after he forsakes his powers for a normal life with her. In the Bryan Singer film, Bosworth has a son who turns out to be Superman's spawn, though she (and the kid) feel like a distraction from Superman's existential issues.